This month I am going to focus my energies on trying to maintain a clean house and even improving the overall status of our clutter situation. I’ve got a good head start because I’ve been tidying behind my daughter every day during nap time and first thing when she goes to bed at night. I’m a little worried that this practice is going to get pushed by the wayside once the new spring semester starts, but I’m hoping that this month’s set of resolutions will help me stay on top of things. Which is precisely why I picked this theme for January’s resolutions.

Sort (keep, donate, toss). My goal for this week specifically is to get ready for the semester by making my job easier, which means sorting through what we have and deciding what to keep, what to store away, what to donate, and what to toss. Excess toys, old clothes, Christmas decorations, a pile of boxes & wrapping paper leftover from Christmas, etc. all need to find their way to their rightful place (i.e. not in my house/immediate living area).

Find sensible storage solutions. In order to properly put away toys & store holiday decorations, etc., I need to find storage solutions that work for us. For example, a lot of our decorations are in various grocery bags and therefore take up a lot more room than if they were in one or two plastic containers. Also, toys have started to accumulate in the corners of the living room because we have no real (sealable) way to put them away.

The nap time/bedtime tidy sweep. Obviously the nap time sweep won’t come into play during the weekdays, but the practice helps keep the madness in check during the weekend.

Chores. My overall mantras for making sure that chores get done in a timely manner and don’t become an insurmountable mountain are:

do it now

do a little bit every day

do what ought to be done

clean while you wait

I’ll report on how keeping this month’s resolutions goes when I start the next round in February, so stay tuned!